Paizo Ends Pathfinder Adventure Path Softcovers, Switching to Quarterly Model

Paizo is ending its line of monthly Pathfinder Adventure Paths, with a new quarterly hardcover replacing the long-running product. Paizo announced the change yesterday on its blog, with the shift beginning next year. The new hardcover Adventure Paths will be a minimum of 256 pages and will have a retail price of $79.99, which is cheaper than the cost of purchasing four softcover adventure paths. Paizo also stated that they'll release one Adventure Path starting at Level 1, another ending at Level 20, with the remaining two falling somewhere in between. Each Adventure Path will cover 9-10 levels of play.

The first two Adventure Paths announced for this format are Hellbreakers and Hell's Destiny, which both cover the upcoming war between Andoran and Cheliax.

The Pathfinder Adventure Paths series started as an evolution of Paizo's monthly Pathfinder magazine series. To date, Paizo has released 222 Pathfinder Adventure Paths. Early Pathfinder Adventure Paths were for campaigns that lasted six issues and typically encompassed Level 1-Level 20 play. However, more recently, the Adventure Path structure has shortened and grown more flexible, with shorter length campaigns with more variable levels of play.

 

[Ramaster]

End of an era!

Tbh, these changes seem good. Glad to see that all levels of play will still be represented, since PF2E plays very well at higher levels compared to... well... basically anything else I've seen.

 

[Parmandur]

$79.99??? For a 256 page hardcover???

Sad to see the magazine format die a little bit more.

 

[UnplayedRanger]

$80? I really wish every hobby wasn't trying to price me out so effectively.

 

[Reynard]

$80? I really wish every hobby wasn't trying to price me out so effectively.

I am pretty sure the monthlies are $30 currently, so you are saving $10.

 

[Velderan]

I am pretty sure the monthlies are $30 currently, so you are saving $10.

They're $30 monthly, so $80 every 3 months saves you $10 off the existing price, saves you 2 shipping charges (~$15 for me), and you get a hardcover instead of a softcover. IMO that's a huge upgrade all around and something I asked for when they had a survey not too long ago asking for feedback.

 

[Reynard]

They're $30 monthly, so $80 every 3 months saves you $10 off the existing price, saves you 2 shipping charges (~$15 for me), and you get a hardcover instead of a softcover. IMO that's a huge upgrade all around and something I asked for when they had a survey not too long ago asking for feedback.

I forgot about the shipping saving. Good catch.

Of course, I still just want Dragon and Dungeon back...

 

[Koloth]

As a reminder, Adventure Paths used to be 6 books long where each softcover book was $19.95. And this was $120 in pre-covid money. An $80 AP in current money is a bargain by comparison. Not sure when they went from 6 to 4 per AP but it was well after I had burned through the 3 years of subscription credit for Dragon and Dungeon that I had renewed just before Hasbro yanked the license to publish away from Paizo, leaving it up to Paizo to refund the money somehow.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

First paths bring Andoran into focus, I want to see some of them EAGLE KNIGHTS BABY

Hellbreakers: A 1st- to 10th-level campaign involving the outbreak of the war between Andoran and Cheliax. Can your PCs make the difference in this violent clash that threatens two of Golarion’s most bitter rival nations?

Hell’s Destiny: An 11th- to 20th-level campaign that continues the war-torn story from Hellbreakers and can also work on its own as a high-powered campaign. Can your PCs stop a truly diabolical threat from engulfing the Inner Sea region and casting the continent of Avistan into ruin?

 

[Ringtail]

Definitely had a knee-jerk upon seeing this, but honestly the change isn't that big. They've been doing smaller APs for awhile now and while I'm not exactly sure of the rate of release 4 of these a year sounds about right.

I'd love to see them release some more module length content though too. Level 1-5 or 6-10 type stuff. My friends and I are a busy, its a hard sell on a full length or even half length AP sometimes.